Sermon 198, augmented.
Treatise of Bishop Augustine against the pagans .
On Avoiding Worldly Joy.
We admonish your charity, since we see you have gathered as if solemnly and assembled at this hour and in this place more frequently than usual, so that you may remember again and again what you were just singing, that your tongue may not be noisy while your heart is mute, but what you sounded with your voice to each other’s ears, you may cry out with affection to the ears of God. For you sang: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may confess your holy name. And now, if the festivity of the nations which is happening today in secular and carnal joy, in the noise of the vainest and most shameful songs, in the celebration of that false festivity itself, if what the nations are doing today does not delight you, be gathered from among the nations.
Mixed in body with the nations, you are separated by the dissimilarity of life.
You certainly sang, and the sound of the divine song is still fresh in your ears: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations. Who can be gathered from the nations unless he is made safe? Those, therefore, who are mixed with the nations are not safe. But those who are gathered from the nations are saved by the safety of faith, the safety of the spirit, the safety of God's promises, the safety of good hope, the safety of the most sincere charity. Therefore, he who believes, hopes, and loves is not immediately to be called safe. For it matters what he believes, what he hopes for, what he loves. For no one lives in any life without these three affections of the soul: believing, hoping, loving. If you do not believe what the nations believe, do not hope for what the nations hope for; do not love what the nations love, you are gathered from the nations. Nor let the bodily mixture in such a separation of mind terrify you. For what is so separated as that they believe demons are gods, you believe God who is the true God? They hope for the vain things of the world, you hope for eternal life in Christ? They love the world, you love the maker of the world? Therefore, he who believes, hopes, and loves differently, let him prove it by his life, show it by his deeds. Today, will you celebrate the New Year with a pagan, play dice with a pagan, get drunk with a pagan? How do you believe, hope, and love differently? How can you sing with a clear conscience: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations? For you are separated from the nations, mixed in body with the nations by a different life. And see how great this separation is if you now do it, if you now prove it. For already our Lord God Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became man for us, gave the price for us. Therefore, if he has already given the price, he gave it to redeem, to gather from the nations. But if you mix with the nations, you do not want to follow him who redeemed. You mix with them in life, deeds, heart, hoping for such things, believing such things, loving such things. You are ungrateful to your redeemer and do not acknowledge your price, the blood of the spotless lamb. Therefore, to follow your redeemer, who redeemed you with his blood, do not mix with the nations in the likeness of customs and deeds. They give gifts, you give alms. For we do not say to you, brothers: "They give, do not you give"; indeed give more than they give, but as those who believe differently, hope differently, love differently, because we do not say to you: "They believe, do not you believe; they hope, do not you hope; they love, do not you love"; but we say to you: "They believe that, you believe this; they hope for that, you hope for this; they love that, you love this; they give that or to those, you give this or to these." Therefore, they give gifts, you give alms. They commit themselves to the chances of earthly things, you commit yourself to the words of the divine Scriptures. They run to the theater, you to the church. They get drunk, you fast. If you do these things, you have truly sung: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations. Now those who willingly heard what I said certainly stand with those who did not willingly hear, and yet they are already gathered from the nations, they are mixed with the nations.
"From those who serve demons, let us separate ourselves by life and morals."
I now speak to Christians: if you believe what the pagans believe, if you hope for what the pagans hope for, if you love what the pagans love, live as the pagans live; but if you believe differently, hope differently, love differently, live differently, and demonstrate your distinct faith and hope and charity by distinct lives. What do the pagans believe? As I have already said, they call gods those whom the Apostle Paul shows us otherwise: "For that which the pagans sacrifice," he says, "they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to become partners with demons." Therefore, the morals of the pagans delight their gods. But he who said, "I do not want you to become partners with demons," wanted us to separate ourselves from those who serve demons by life and morals. Indeed, those demons delight in songs of vanity, delight in nonsensical noise and the various obscenities of theaters, the madness of the circus, the cruelty of the amphitheater, and the fierce contests of those who engage in disputes and quarrels up to enmities on behalf of pestilent men, for a mime, for an actor, for a charioteer, for a hunter. Doing these things, they as if place incense to demons from their hearts. For the deceptive spirits rejoice in the deceived, and they are fed by the evil morals and vile and infamous life of those they have deceived and seduced.
But if you say to a man: "You love the charioteer," he responds: "Of course, I love him," because, even if he denies it, he is caught favoring him, shouting for him, quarreling for him. And if you add: "You love him very much," he will respond: "Very much." If you say to him: "Be like him and your sons," immediately if he appears respectable, he will respond indignantly: "Why have you insulted me?" "Do I insult you when I say: Be like him, or do you insult yourself who love such a one that you fear to be like?"
On the contrary, you love the martyrs. So, just as you say to a pagan: "You love this charioteer," and he says: "I love him," and he is not ashamed, thus say to a Christian: "You love Cyprian," he responds: "I love him," say to him: "Be like him," he responds: "May God grant this!" How sincere this love is, how chaste, how secure, especially for one already crowned! For the love concerned with one still struggling is anxious, but nevertheless all love him who has already conquered, who already sits at the right hand of the Father, who from above, as the master of the contest that Paul recounts, not only watches those struggling but also helps those enduring.
"Fear and love compel you."
Therefore, many will struggle today in their hearts with the word they have heard. For we said: "Do not give gifts, give to the poor." It is little that you give only, give even more. Do you not wish to give more? At least give some. But you say to me: "When I give gifts, I also receive." What then? When you give to the poor, do you receive nothing? Surely you do not believe what the gentiles believe, surely you do not hope for what the gentiles hope for, surely you do not love what the gentiles love. Behold, if you say that you receive nothing when you give to the poor, you become like the gentiles, and you sang in vain: "Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the gentiles." You have forgotten what will be said to those who gave: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom," and what will be said to those who do not believe: "Depart into the eternal fire," which is prepared for the devil and his angels. If He would give the kingdom to these, and give nothing to those but only leave them, you ought to love what He gives and not wish to be deprived of such a great and ineffable good. But it is not only that He sends these into the kingdom and not those, but also says: "Depart into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." Fear and love compel you. If you love less what is promised, fear what is threatened. For you begin with fear, you are perfected in love. By fearing the fires you do what is said, but as long as you do it by fearing, you act as a servant; but when you act out of love, you already act freely. Be a good servant to deserve to be free. Begin to fear whom you will love, whom when you have loved you will not fear. For it is written: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear." This the apostle John says. But if perfect love casts out fear, let fear first possess the heart; love will be born there, and thus, as much as love grows, fear will decrease; as it increases, it will diminish; when it is perfected, it will be expelled. For there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear. Do it if you love; if you do not yet love, do it if you fear; but if you neither fear nor love, you will sing in vain: "Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the gentiles." For you are still gentiles, bearing the yoke with the unbelievers. Your Lord did for you what He did, do you for the pagans because, when the Lord did for you, you were not yet a Christian. Let them hear, whether they want it or not, who believe otherwise, hope otherwise, love otherwise: we say what we know; let them do what they want, only let them know that they do not do anything in vain whatever they do. For there is reward not only for good deeds but also for evil deeds. The reward for evil deeds is called punishment, the reward for good deeds is the crown.
"Before you were a Christian, the Lord suffered for you."
What, then, did your Lord do for you before you were a Christian? He suffered for you. And what does He say in the Psalms? "But I, when they were troublesome to me, clothed myself in sackcloth and humbled my soul with fasting." If you understand this figuratively, it is as though the Lord fasted by not taking the impious into His body. And in that fasting, He was hungry when, finding no fruit on that tree, He cursed it, and it withered. What does it mean when He says, "I clothed myself in sackcloth"? As if hiding His power within the infirmity of the flesh, He presented that same mortal flesh to the eyes of His persecutors. In that flesh, which He took from the old state of our mortality without any sin of His own, He bore our sins. And the sackcloth pertains to sins because of the haircloth made from the hairs of goats, which will be placed on the left, unless they first convert into lambs. Therefore, in that form of a servant, sinning in nothing, and hence owing nothing to death, He nonetheless paid on our behalf what He did not owe, to free us from our debts. In that sackcloth, He carried our price. For from the sackcloth, even the diminutive "small sack" is derived. But He carried our great price in the sackcloth with which He clothed Himself, opposing it to His persecutors, from whose impiety He humbled His soul with fasting. Indeed, when He hung on the cross, the sack was pierced by a lance, and the price of the world flowed out. So, your Lord suffered for you before you were a Christian, to buy you and make you a Christian.
Let us fast for the nations.
But what does Scripture say? Just as he laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. If we cannot yet suffer for the nations, we can at least fast for the nations. How far are you from the imitation of your Lord! And when you fast, how far you still are! And it is good for you to draw near. But how do you shudder at that very perfection, whose step you fear, a step so close, so humble! This step is almost on the ground—I do not know if it should even be called a step—that you are unwilling to ascend. For what is great in fasting at this time, in eating late on such a short day? It is not great, it is not at all laborious. Concern for a single occupation often makes one do what you are unwilling to offer to God with devotion. Because the Church of God wills it, you do not wish to fast. If you were playing a game, you would fast, and you would fast to avoid rising from defeat. To win, fearing that you might be defeated by a man for money, you would fast, and you do not fast, fearing not that you might be defeated in spirit by the devil. For nothing is easier than fasting on such short days. But on the Kalends of January, you do not wish to fast. Test yourselves so that you may rejoice in yourselves, so that we may rejoice in you. How small a temptation! Yet it tests the Christian heart.
Let the longing for Christ burn in our hearts.
You hear the sermon now: you are suspended, invigorated by the word of God, and the exhortation itself warms the heart. We light something in your minds: we see it, we recognize it, but let that flame take strength. For from this place, after the sermon is finished shortly, you will go out to the storms and to the cold of the world. You know that this world seems to burn in perverse festivity: the winds are cold, where it is to be feared that Christian hearts may freeze. Therefore, brothers, as I said, let the strength of your heart grasp the divine word. If it takes hold, those storms which you are about to experience outside shortly will rather excite a greater flame - they will not extinguish it -, if it is not a small spark that can be extinguished. If your heart burns like chaff now, when you cry out, when you love, when you rejoice in the word of God, you will go out shortly, and it will be extinguished with a single breath of mouth, when it is said to a man: "Are you really going to fast today?". It will be extinguished immediately, because it had begun to burn like chaff. But if it burns like coals of fire, no matter how much perverse persuasion of contrary winds exists, they will increase the fire and excite it more intensely. But they burn like coals, who have come back to life. For coals, when they burn, appear to come back to life from the dead. Many also use this saying commonly; when they send for lighting, they say: "Bring the live ones", which they mean to understand as burning. Hence, naturally, they signify the extinguished ones as if they were dead. Therefore, if you have revived with the fervor of Christ's charity, let your desire for Him burn in your hearts in such a way that no breath of dissenters extinguishes it. For I know what you will experience when you leave here, and thanks be to God that you have gathered. For the fact that you gather more frequently these days does not displease us, on the contrary, it even pleases us. For you have found a way, because those whose habits are not like yours hurry to other things and engage themselves in various vain pleasures, and thus they grant you leisure and freedom, so that what has been said may be fulfilled in you: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations. Therefore, you are gathered now; even if you go out and are mixed with them through bodily conversation, yet you do not consent to their evil and trivial matters, you will remain gathered from among the nations, wherever you are bodily. And would that you suffered from the wicked detractors only in the streets, and not even in your own homes! The father wishes to fast, the son does not, or the son wishes, the father does not; or the husband wishes, the wife does not want to, or she wishes and he does not. For he who does not want, and therefore does not want because he considers this day a festival, is a contrary breath: but let him burn in such a way that not only can he not be extinguished, but that that person may also be ignited by him.
The festivals of the pagans arouse a new pain in the Christians.
My brethren, if you understand well what you hear, I do not doubt that you feel sorrow for those who are still held in that madness. You feel sorrow for them because perhaps you too were once held by such madness; and now your heart is healthy compared to their madness, and you grieve compassionately but do not grieve with despair. For if it was possible for you to be changed so that what you loved yesterday you do not love today, it is also possible for him. Therefore, as long as he is such and you grieve for him, pray for him. And in order for your prayer to be heard, fast for him and give alms, and spend for him the day that you cherish - he who does not cherish himself dissipates it in contrary ways: for whoever loves iniquity hates his own soul - so that he may also come to hate iniquity, loving his soul, and inwardly grieve with you for others, and pray and fast for them with you.
Indeed, brethren, although other days too occupy them with distractions, it is especially during their festivals that a greater license for trivialities stimulates them to greater love of the world and the destruction of pleasures. For when one does it in his home, in the cooler neighborhoods he raves less; but when everyone does it, they inflame each other. But I have already told you: their ardor is your coldness. All love is ardor. But it matters what is loved. When the heart burns for the world, it is cold to God. So let it grow cold to the world, let it burn for God.
Therefore, when they do these things more fervently and more festively, as they incite themselves to wickedness against themselves, let them incite you to mercy for them. Indeed, they must always be mourned, as long as they are pagans, as long as they follow vanities, as long as they are devoted to demons. As long as they wish to worship what they have made, forgetting by whom they were made, they must always be mourned. But during their festivals, they excite a new grief. When you see them dissolving into various follies, into the pleasures of luxury, into immoderate drunkenness, into gambling and manifold insanities, let their new foolishness bring you new grief, if you are a Christian, if you are compassionate, because even when you were not what you are, the Church had compassion on you, which was still then in few numbers. Now that it has grown mature and widely spread in the name of Christ, should they not be mourned more who are still hard of heart, loving vanity and seeking lies? For those few who remain separated from the human race by some most stubborn obstinacy, greater sorrow is due, because a greater sickness causes them to vanish and they are not healed by the authority of such great medicine.
"Christians should not go to the theaters!"
And if only we were mourning for the pagans alone! We would almost not mourn for anyone. Christians should not go to the theaters: the pagans flee from there, even if not out of love for the truth, at least out of shame for the small number. Surely we must offer a greater sacrifice of prayers with sharper pain in our hearts, so that those who are called Christians may deserve to be corrected. So it is not impudent, brothers, rather it is very appropriate to fast, especially for those who toil because they want to, who, if they did not wish it, would not toil. For they are oppressed by their sins and they rejoice in their most polluted pleasures, and they do not hear the voice saying: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. They do not wish to be refreshed in the sweetness of Christ and think they are refreshed in the satiety of lust. That is not refreshment, but ruin. Nor should you celebrate the Christian feast days like drunkards, although fasts should be relaxed because of the sacrament of joy. However, it is one thing to signify joy by relaxing the fast, another thing to repel justice by the burden of the heart. The Lord says, the truth says: Do not let your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness. It is foolish and irreverent to want to please the martyrs for the reason that if they had not despised such things, they would never have attained the glory of martyrdom.
"Not all pagans think the same about idols."